Loucetios
by LucidityEater
Summary: A story about a outcast from a divine society wanting to walk his own path, yet is punished for simply wishing to know more about the world below the clouds and the mysterious fallen being with powers of light and dark. Based on the song by momocashew.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey guys! I'm LucidityEater, and this is my first story on this site! It is based on the lovely song _Loucetios_ by momocashew, and I do hope you like it. Loucetios (the character) can be seen as Len, and the story is written from Oliver's point of view. I have no idea when the next chapter will be out, but it definitely will be uploaded. Please leave a review, and constructive criticism and any advice you may have is greatly appreciated. _

_Note: the song_ Loucetios_ belongs to momocashew._

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><p><strong><span>Part 1<span>**

You could say I am a hunter of sorts. But I do not hunt to survive, or for sport. The reason I hunt…it's hard to put it into words. But I know who I hunt. Loucetios.

The arrival of dusk opened my eyes. Cold mountain air stole the moisture from my throat, and I reached for the water skin by the dying coals of the fire. The stone beneath me was mercilessly hard, and no vegetation softened its surface.

The mountain I lived on had no name, at least, no name that I knew of. I had been here a year, waiting for him to arrive. The last place I had stayed for several decades, as there were no people to question the young boy who never aged. He slipped out of my grasp then, and the time before that, and on and on, through the centuries, a hunt that never ended. I had pursued him relentlessly from the time I had been cast out, chasing the light.

Down below, far, far below, nestled a village in a valley, thatched roofs gleaming pale against a backdrop of lush dark green. Hills rolled on, the occasional peak breaking the surface, the clear air giving way to a faint haze. The horizon was grey, faint streaks of white visible here and there, and above, where the sun's rays still danced, splashes of vermilion and gold lit up the sky.

I sat up, my tunic caught on a stone, and I abruptly lay down again as the fabric pulled on me. I made it to my feet, and took my bow from where it had lain on the ground. Then, I took a deep breath, and stepped out onto empty air.

I cannot fly, no. They took my wings. But the air supports me, and I can use it to, in a sense, fly.

The wind blew me up, and so I went soaring, the village far below me, the ground thickly carpeted with trees. The further up I went, the colder it became, and frost gathered on my clothes and hair, stiffening the bandage around my face. The sky darkened, and the thin air chilled my skin.

A gust of wind caught me and blew me sideways, sending me plummeting a few hundred metres before I could regain its trust. The air up here was treacherous, and I never knew when it would loosen its hold on me.

Above me was a wisp of black cloud, and further on were more, and more, coagulating to form a dark mass, seemingly impenetrable. I closed my eyes as I rushed towards it.

When I opened them, I was so high the stars glimmered above me, brightly burning with a mocking light. The dark cloud was beneath my feet, acting as a floor, and tendrils of black mist floated up from the edges, like walls. Lightning flashed through it, momentarily blinding the stars from my sight.

Ahead of me, floating, pure white wings folded against his back, golden hair tied up, his pale skin glowing with that light I knew I could never lay claim to again, stood _him._

"Here again?" he asked, with that strange lilt I no longer had.

"Let me join you, I know your enemies, I know how to defeat them –" the words poured from my mouth, unbidden.

"Always the same words?" Loucetios interrupted, turning around. His eyes shone like frozen sapphires.

"If you would listen-"

"I've listened enough." His eyes were so cold, staring at me. I wondered what we looked like from below. Two lights in the sky, one brighter than the other.

The cloud floor vanished beneath my feet, and along the tops of the walls tendrils of mist were forming, snaking their way down and pooling into a dark mass before the first creature lunged out at me.

It exploded into a cloud of black ash as I swept my bow through it, and rammed my fist into the throat of the second. They kept on coming, the third and fourth attempting to tackle me from behind as two others snapped at my throat. I darted through them all, powder raining down on me as the creatures were crushed in this deadly dance, dozens more forming from their fallen comrades' remains, snarling, onyx eyes glaring at me as I destroyed them. On and on and on, ash crackling beneath my bare feet, until the last one was left.

Tentatively, I reached out, resting the tips of my fingers against the black muzzle, watching as at my touch pearly light began to spread slowly over its head, its eyes shining like the moon.

It exploded, sparkling ash floating down as Loucetios dropped his hand, white ash falling from his pale fingers. His eyes drilled into mine, blue against gold.

"Begone."

A slow rumble reverberated through the misty floor, blurring my vision with the vibrations, and Loucetios shouted something, in a language I could no longer understand.

Above me lightning blasted down, arcing toward me, and flung me back as it hit me, blazing, searing pain as the electricity coursed through my body, numbing my brain, until I could take it no more and finally screamed.

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><p><em>Thank you for reading, and again, please leave a review or some advice!<em>


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm so sorry this is late! Life decided to be mean to me, so I couldn't really focus on my fanfic writing. To iloveyugiohGX93 and any others disappointed by the length of the previous chapter, this is roughly double the size._

_Kindly edited by DragonBos, thanks._

_I hope you enjoy this!_

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><p>I woke upon the cold stone of the mountain, rock pressing into my cheek. Cool dawn light had turned the sky a misty blue, and pale cloud streaked across it.<p>

I shifted my head a little, and the bandage covering my left eye crumbled into ash. I pushed myself up on shaking arms and stood, and my clothes disintegrated, leaving a fine coating of ash on my skin and allowing the wind to bite into me.

Wiping the ash away from my right eye, keeping my left tightly closed, I squinted up at the sky. A small, pale dot, like the few stars that had not yet faded but was too large to be one, still hovered high above me, wisps of cloud circling around it.

I frowned. He never stayed after dawn. His visits to mortal settlements lasted only a single night, and he would only return after a century had passed, having visited every other village and city that depended on his light. Since I had begun to pursue him his movements became erratic and random, yet he still managed to stay at a choice few places every hundred years.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. For this creature to betray a habit of centuries…

Still staring upwards, I made the mistake of opening my left eye.

Light tore through my sight, blinding me, sending me crashing to the ground, as the brightness burnt at my mind. Swirling colours amidst the white sent a wave of nausea through me, and voices, powerful, terrible, spoke words that deafened my ears. I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping it would not last long, and then the light, the voices vanished.

I gasped, staring through my eyelids, not daring to open them again. The world was dark, as if wreathed in a grey veil, the rising sun a pale watery disc whose rays had little effect on the scene laid out before me.

The valley was obscured by a thin ashen mist, the trees bare, stretching bony branches up to the leaden, cloudless sky, the few thatched roofs I could see gleaming, ghostly figures making their way towards the mountain I rested upon. A whispering sound, like the wind, echoed up to me, but I could not understand the words it was saying.

"Revilo."

I spun around. Before me a humanoid figure raised its ghostly hand to caress my cheek, whispering my name backwards. Its touch seared my skin, and I leapt backwards, the air holding me up, the spectre's burning eyes searching my face, its mouth gaping open. It took a step forwards. I let out a cry and opened my eyes.

I was alone, unclothed, hovering above the small space that held the cold remains of my fire, ash scattered across the ground, the morning sun blazing, no trace left of the grey world nor the ghost that had appeared.

I collapsed onto the mountain, limbs shaking. The curse was so that I would see how too much light could burn away the world, and would temporarily blind me. It was not to show me how the absence of both light and dark would affect the world. That was not my punishment.

Something had caused an error. Something I did not know, something I suspected _they_ did not know. The spectre was something that should not exist, a mistake, a grave mistake.

I lifted a hand to my face, expecting to find a wound of some sort, but found nothing.

My bow lay on the ground where it had fallen, and I picked it up, even though the string had been burnt away. It worked well as a melee weapon.

Glancing up at the late star above, I jumped, the wind sending me shooting upwards, through the thin clouds, the mountain below me growing ever smaller. The freezing air slashed my skin like blades of ice, but I paid them no attention. There was a danger, a danger I had to warn him about.

"Loucetios!" I shouted, as the pale dot morphed into a winged shape. "Loucetios, Listen to me!"

He turned slowly as I drew level with him, wings steadily beating. His lip curled in disgust at the sight of me. "What do you want?"

"There–There are – there was – my punishment – I saw the world devoid of light and dark, it–"

His eyes widened and he grabbed my shoulders. His touch was like ice, and I struggled to break free, but he held me tightly.

"Are you lying to me?" he hissed. "Are you?"

"No-" I thrashed around. "Let go of me!"

"What did you see? Tell me!"

"A ghost, it called my name, backwards–"

He flung me away, the back of his hand striking my face. "You lie!"

"No! I saw it! The world was empty! It held nothing but wraiths!"

"Silence." The cold fury in his voice shocked me.

"…I…" Gusts of air from his wingbeats buffeted me. "My eye, it showed me the world if they are allowed to continue, if they still practice that–"

"It was not them." His face had an expression on it that I was not used to seeing. "Something else…"

"How could it not be them?!" I shouted. "They are the only ones with the power–"

His wing thudded into my chest, the powerful blow cracking my ribs. The air lost its hold on me and I fell, the clouds rushing past me, the valley below looming closer and closer until I could see every leaf in detail, the spiderweb network of veins, the ants crawling along the stems, and then I crashed through the branches and hit the ground.

I opened my eye, twigs and rotting leaves pressing into my skin, my ribs aching. I attempted to sit up and fell over from the dizziness caused by moving suddenly, head spinning, nausea swirling around in my stomach.

The trees next to me were tall and thick, covered in rough bark, moss growing in emeralds streaks on their trunks. I pushed myself up and leaned on one, panting. My ribs hurt when I moved, and my face was tender where he had struck me.

Liquid dripped down my hand and I frowned. I lifted my hand and saw red lines scraped across the back of it, from which dark red liquid welled up.

Blood.

I stared at it, captivated. I did not bleed. None of us should, though since I was an outcast it was possible. But I had never bled, never, neither swords nor arrows had pierced my skin. But I did not understand why it was happening now. Perhaps the ghost had made me a mortal.

I studied the wounds closer. The brilliant red shone like a precious stone, utterly beautiful, as it slowly dripped down my arm. Countless more ruby lines covered my body, blood oozing from them.

My fascination turned to a faint sense of horror as I realised that I could be wounded, severely, perhaps fatally. I was no longer one of them. I was _human._

An unfamiliar hollow sensation crept through my stomach. Hunger. Something I rarely felt. I did eat, about once every few months, and since I had last eaten a week ago I should not feel the urge to eat again, not this soon. But I did.

I looked up, through the tree branches, and saw the mountain towering above me. I was in no state to return to it, certainly not in any way to confront Loucetios again.

I turned in the direction of the village, obscured by several miles of trees. I had no choice, I had to make contact with the villagers in order to obtain food. And clothing. And everything else I would need.

I took a step and fell again. I managed to regain my balance without hitting the ground, and I continued on through the forest, stumbling over roots and hidden holes, scratching my hands and knees, the ache in my stomach growing stronger. The thick trunks seemed to deliberately stand in my way, causing me to walk into them, adding to the grazes on my torso. Birdcalls taunted my slow progress, piercingly sweet, accompanying the gurgling of an unseen stream nearby.

As the hours dragged on, much like my feet were doing, the sun climbed higher up the sky, its burning rays causing water to mist up from the ground, turning the air dank and heavy. Sweat dripped down my limbs, stinging the cuts, the alien sensation of pain bothering me more than it should. My hair plastered itself against my skull.

Soon my tired eye could discern the outline of a building, thatch glistening in the damp heat, small windows offering no glimpse into the rooms beyond, a thick wooden door set into the stone walls. A flimsy skeletal fence encircled a small garden, in which a woman was tending vegetables, sweat shining on her dark skin.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out, only a pathetic whimper, like some wounded animal. The woman spun to face me, her eyes widening at the sight of the child staggering towards her, naked, scratches covering his body, a giant bruise in the centre of his chest, one eye closed, covered by a horrific scar.

"My child! Dear child, what happened?!" she cried, catching me in her strong arms as I fell. "Rai!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Come quickly!"

"Child," she said to me as my eye drifted closed, "do not worry anymore. You are safe here."

She sat there, rocking me in her arms, as the soft blanket of darkness slowly eclipsed my sight.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading!<em>


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